Spokane

We said goodbye to Jac and family today

She had fun getting her pants that dirty

and headed to Spokane. 

 Riverfront Park

We were scheduled to spend another night at the tiny house 

 Hotel views. We could see half the city

but driving to Spokane to sightsee, 

 Clock Tower on Spokane River

then back for the night, 

then to Spokane airport the next morning seemed a bit much (it’s 90 minutes each way…)

 Big(!) busy bumblebee 

So instead, we booked a hotel room close-ish to the airport 

 Lilacs; the wagon handle was a full-sized kids slide; one of many water features

and across the street from two things we really wanted to see this trip - 

Riverfront Park 

 Sampling of art from the park. 

and Spokane Falls. 

 Upper Falls

We walked through the park, admiring the art and water features,

 So many pedestrian bridges!

before getting to the Spokane River

 Lower Falls

and Upper and Lower Spokane Falls. 

 Looking back at Lower Falls

We took a catrillion photos (only slight exaggeration) 

 Our first view of SkyRide capsules

from every angle we could find, 

including the SkyRide capsules (so fun!)

An excellent dinner at PF Changs-

 View from SkyRide

I’m still sad the one near us closed -

 Rotary Fountain, Gesa Pavilion in the background 

then back to our corner room(!) on the 9th floor 

 Hotel carpet was pretty

to watch night fall and the city lights sparkle.

 Gesa Pavilion from our room. The colors kept changing as we watched

We fly home late tomorrow afternoon. 

 We were almost the only people on the ride. 

Looking forward to seeing Cyrus, Leia and Coco, who have been housesitting while we’re gone. 

 Artsy Lower Falls

And also planning our next trip to Spokane. 

 The river after the falls

More of the bazillion photos…

Hail Yes

Jaclyn: Let’s go for a walk Grandma. It will be fun!

River walk behind our tiny house

Also Jac: Don’t forget your raincoat just in case.

 Looking back-our house is the 3rd one, behind the tree

Mother Nature, 5 minutes later: Hahahahahahahahaha

 Watching the rain on the water as it headed our way

as she pelted us with gravel-sized hail.  

 Pink dot is Jac, outpacing me to the warm house

I stopped for less than a minute to take a video - 

Jac kept right on going, beating me to the house by enough time to strip off her soaked coat, shoes and pants and plant herself in the middle of the bed, under at least 3 blankets. 

 There was a lot more before Mother Nature was done

Such a smart girl.

Gold Mining

Our plan today was to visit two small historical towns - Kellogg and Wallace - about an hour from where we’re staying, but we had so much fun at the first stop we never made it further. 

Kellogg is home to the Crystal Gold Mine (here). Once a working mine, today it offers mine tours, gold panning, gemstone sluicing and spray painting VW Bugs(!). Something for everyone.

I was surprised how much we all enjoyed panning for gold. One of the employees gave us some useful pointers, then left us to it. Pop and Leo were very good at finding gold flakes, while Jac and I found mostly pretty rocks. 

The ‘gemstones’ were in a pre-packaged bag of sand so the girls were guaranteed to find gems. (Pay more, find more…) They were both glued to their sluice screens, concentrating on finding all they could. 

The mine tour was interesting, one of the better ones we’ve done. The mine opened in 1879, operated during the 1880’s, 

then was boarded up and forgotten until a century later. It was rediscovered in 1991 during nearby freeway construction.

Interesting tidbits: gold was found only in veins of quartz; no white rocks, no yellow gold. 

The mine is 900’ underground 

and (Jac was not happy to discover) it is pitch black when the lights are out. 

Several flooded areas have healthy groups of fish; the water is clear and fresh. 

Colors of Smithsonite reflect the minerals in the rock - purple is manganese, blue is cobalt, green is copper, orange/brown is iron and black is silver. Although there’s silver in the rock, it wasn’t mined because it wasn’t valuable in the 1880’s. 

Black lines are silver

There are a few places with gold still visible. 

 Small veins of gold

There’s also a rare example of naturally-occurring silver wire, which is 100% pure silver. 

 Rare silver wire

We weren’t expecting a lot but this turned out to be a great place to visit. One nice thing about visiting off-season is the lack of crowds and more personalized attention. Nobody was rushing us and we ended up staying almost 3 hours. 

Idahoooooo

Wednesday was a long day - up at 4, on the road at 7 for our 1 pm flight (you never know what LA traffic - or airport security - is going to do. Much better to be really early…) Then a 2 hour drive in the rain to see -

these cuties. 

We’re staying in a tiny house (here) on the banks of the St. Joe River. 

I was afraid we’d feel cramped in the 399 sq. ft. space, 

but the high ceilings make it feel spacious and there’s a crazy amount of very clever storage places. 

 Marie, Leo and Kenia; their side yard, Polish chicks and bunny sisters, S’mores and Butterscotch.

Jac had school today, so we just hung out at Marie’s house and around town until she was done. 

Jac: Grandma! This ice cube has a mouth so it goes in my mouth! (I’ve really missed daily Jackie-isms.)

We’re planning to visit a gold mine and a couple of historic towns tomorrow. Hoping the rain holds off  - our lazy day today had clear skies, of course - but either way, it’ll be fun hanging out with the grand girls again.